No shame for Foley

Well, well, well.
Here it is the day after Wrestlemania and it's the time that grumpy online columnists wait for all year. In their best Comic-Store-Guy-From-The-Simpsons voice they hold their nose and say, "Worst Wrestlemania EVER" about the most anticipated PPV of the year.

I'll cut right to the chase...

Shame on anyone who complains about Mick Foley's performance at WM2000. The man has turned himself into a cripple at 35 by giving the fans insane bump after insane bump. All the guy wanted was to add the proverbial cherry on the sundae that was his career by being in the main event at Wrestlemania. I find it sickening that, not 24 hours removed from his swan song, online columns are full of complaints by amnesia-stricken wrestling "journalists" who have already forgotten the Royal Rumble, No Way Out, Hell In A Cell, King of the Death Match, and every other crazy moment of his storied career.

Now I know why they're called dirt sheets.

Haven't we smarks learned by now that NOBODY goes out the champ? It's one of the few unwavering laws of professional wrestling. Wrestling has no off-season. Even though events like Wrestlemania are considered the "Superbowl" a champion can't just ride off into the sunset like John Elway. If guys like Bret "The Hitman" Hart and Hulk Hogan can't leave a promotion with the title then why should Mick Foley?

The fact that Mick Foley was in the main event at WM2000 had absolutely nothing to do with championships, story-ines, or "sports entertainment." It was about respect. The one and ONLY thing left unchecked on his "to-do" list was to main event at Wrestlemania. What did he have left to prove to anyone? Nothing. His appearance yesterday served one purpose: to allow Mick to sit back with his friends and family years from now and say, "Yeah... I main evented at Wrestlemania. Me. Mick Foley. Pretty cool, huh?"

Not that he won, not that he lost, but that he was there.

Mick Foley is a bigger man than Bret Hart. Mick Foley is certainly a bigger man than Terry Bollea. Three years from now Foley won't be bemoaning how he got screwed by the promotion or on a radio program taking cheap-shots at younger talent while brown-nosing his former employer for one last kick at the can.

Foley is the last of the damn Mohicans. Anyone who finds fault in that man's "work" at Wrestlemania 2000 can go straight to Hell.

Chris Engler is from North York, Ontario and can be emailed at cengler@home.com.